Chocolate mousse boxes

BexInLondon

Given that the past 2 months of married life (coincidentally the first 2 months of married life!!) have been mainly catered for by recipes from this board I thought I should share one that I discovered myself while experimenting a few years ago.

It's chocolate mousse served in little boxes made of chocolate. Always impresses guests but in actual fact is dead easy. If you wanted to be quick (but not very OS) you could even buy the mousse ready-made. Not that I've ever done that *whistles casually*

You need:
For the mousse (courtesy of Delia Smith - for more detailed recipe for mousse see her website):
200g dark chocolate (I use Green and Black's Maya Gold for some orangeyness)
3 large eggs, separated (I use 4 medium eggs as I feel for the hens laying large)
40g golden caster sugar (I use normal when I don't have golden in!)

For the chocolate boxes:
100g chocolate of choice (white complements the orangey mousse)


The method to my madness:
Melt the choc with 100 ml of water in a glass/pyrex bowl over a saucepan, take it off the heat, stir it til it's very pretty and glossy, and then stir in the egg yolks. Put it to one side.
Now whisk up the egg whites to soft peak stage then slowly add the sugar. Whisk again until beautiful and glossy (choc mousse is all about glossiness in the making!).

Now the science bit. Fold the whipped whites into the chocolate, but by bit. You need to try and preserve the tiny air bubbles as much as possible, so fold gently! For this part I use a metal knife and an almost chopping action. Pour the mousse into some sort of container so that it's no more than 2 inches deep (so that it doesn't collapse in on itself). Now put it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Melt the other chocolate down, this time without any water, and line a baking tray with clingfilm. Pour the chocolate into the tray and let it set. You're trying to get a thin layer, say 3 mm, otherwise the dish will be too rich.

Do something else for 2 hours.

When ready to serve, score the surface of the chocolate slab in a grid pattern. Keep scoring gently until you have lots of little squares of chocolate, say 5cm by 5cm. It doesn't matter at all if some of the squares break up into triangles or you end up with rough blobs, it simply makes the finished dish more artisan. You need 4 - 6 squares per person. If using 5/6, put one piece in the middle of each plate, blob on some mousse, then build up the side of the cube with the other pieces. If you've enough, you can make a lid. If you've only enough for 4 squares per person, simply blob the mousse onto the plate then build up around it.

You can plate up in advance and keep in the fridge til dessert time. You can decorate with raspberries, cream, mint, orange and cognac sauce... anything really!

jcr16

sounds yummy. i think i will def try the chocolate boxes first but use a shop bought mousse i will then later on try a home made mousse. hubby will be impressed.